Sweet Maiden of Quoddy

I heard this once on CBC radio and have been looking for it. Catherine Reid, at the Miramichi West library graciously found it for me. I like that someone writing about 150 years ago wrote with wit and rhythm that seems perfectly appropriate today.

Sweet Maiden of Quoddy
James De Mille – 1833-1880
Sweet maiden of [...]

Reunion, Remembrance, 2000

Her voice was a motor of cigarettes, coffee and draft,
Kind, and with all the weary authority of death.
Her laugh was an explosion of bawdy glee,
Gusting across an ash tray Armageddon
Smudging the beer rings recording the rounds
On ghost-bleached Formica at the Legion hall.
She said good bye to her first soldier sixty years ago.
Youth’s urgent appointment with [...]

Reunion, Remembrance, 2000

Her voice was a motor of cigarettes, coffee and draft,
kind, and with all the weary authority of death.
Her laugh was an explosion of bawdy glee,
gusting across an ash tray Armageddon,
smudging the beer rings recording the rounds
on ghost-bleached Formica at the Legion hall.
She said good bye to her first soldier sixty years ago.
Youth’s urgent appointment with [...]

Requiem: The Soldier

Down some cold field in a world outspoken
the young men are walking together, slim and tall,
and though they laugh to one another, silence is not broken;
there is no sound however clear they call.
They are speaking together of what they loved in vain here,
but the air is too thin to carry the things they say.
They were [...]

The Young British Soldier

Rudyard Kipling

When the ‘arf-made recruity goes out to the East
‘E acts like a babe an’ ‘e drinks like a beast,
An’ ‘e wonders because ‘e is frequent deceased
Ere ‘e’s fit for to serve as a soldier.
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
Serve, serve, serve as a soldier,
So-oldier OF the Queen!
Now all you [...]

All the World’s a Stage

(aka, The Seven Ages of Man)
From the play “As You Like It”
by William Shakespeare
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms;
Then the whining [...]

Found Poem

I would rather be ashes
than dust!
I would rather that my spark
should burn out
in a brilliant blaze
than it should be stifled
by dry rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor
every atom of me
in magnificent glow,
than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The proper [...]

Beauty

I HAVE seen dawn and sunset on moors and windy hills
Coming in solemn beauty like slow old tunes of Spain:
I have seen the lady April bringing the daffodils,
Bringing the springing grass and the soft warm April rain.
I have heard the song of the blossoms and the old chant of the sea,
And seen strange lands from [...]

To A Poet, A Thousand Years Hence

Here is my favourite, by far, of two poems with the same name.
The second one follows the first and is, in my opinion, also very good.
To A Poet A Thousand Years Hence
I who am dead a thousand years,
And wrote this sweet archaic song,
Send you my words for messengers
The way I shall not pass along.
I care [...]

Rondel of Merciless Beauty

Your two great eyes will slay me suddenly;
Their beauty shakes me who was once serene;
Straight through my heart the wound is quick and keen.
Only your word will heal the injury
To my hurt heart, while yet the wound is clean -
Your two great eyes will slay me suddenly;
Their beauty shakes me who was once serene.
Upon my [...]